1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus capable of recording an image on a recording medium by using a fluid ink at low cost.
2. Related Background Art
Of information processing recording systems, various types of systems for recording information on normal paper have been developed. These systems are exemplified as an impact printer, an electrophotographic system, a laser printer, a thermal transfer printer, and the like.
A thermal transfer recording apparatus is most popular since it generates low noise and is compact. According to this recording system, an ink ribbon prepared by coating a heat meltable ink on a base sheet is used and heated with a recording head in accordance with an image pattern. The melted ink is then transferred to a recording sheet. The thermal transfer recording apparatus has many advantages such as low noise and a compact arrangement. In addition, the thermal transfer recording apparatus can be manufactured at low cost.
The thermal transfer recording apparatus, however, presents the following problems. In order to prepare an ink ribbon, a heat meltable ink must e coated on the heat-resistive base sheet by complex process. The ink ribbon is disposable. In other words, once the ink ribbon is used, it cannot be reused, thus undesirably increasing the running cost.
The present applicant proposed a recording apparatus (Japanese Patent Application No. 61-175191) as a means for solving the above problems. In this apparatus, a fluid ink is transported in the form of a film by an ink transporting means, and a predetermined energy is selectively applied to the ink to form an ink image of a pattern having adherence. The ink image is transferred to a recording medium.
According to the above recording apparatus, the ink ribbon as in the one of the conventional thermal transfer systems need not be used. Only an ink portion constituting the ink image is transferred to the recording medium. Therefore, the remaining ink portion which does not constitute the ink image can be repeatedly used.
The present applicant made a U.S. application (Ser. No. 75,045 filed on July 17, 1987), a German application (Application No. 3724576.7 filed on July 24, 1987), a French application (Application No. 87-10576 filed on July 24, 1987), and a British application (Application No. 87-17565 filed on July 24, 1987), each of which was a joinder of Japanese Patent Application Nos. 61-175191 (filed on July 25, 1986), 61-216752 (filed on Sept. 13, 1986), 62-1709 (filed on Jan. 9, 1987), 62-98590 (filed on Apr. 23, 1987), and 62-131584 (filed on May 29, 1987) on the basis of the declaration of priority thereof.
The invention of the present application to be described below is an improvement of the inventions of the above-mentioned Japanese, U.S., German, French, and British applications. The image recording ink and the image recording method, both which have been described in the above previous applications are apparently applicable to the invention of the present application.